I’ll Be Slaying You (Night Watch #2)(38)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Bright red lights filtered through the smoke. The loud blare of a fire truck’s horn had Leo jerking. “It’s not over.”

“For you, it is.”

Simon’s knees hit the dirt. “Dee…” Too much pain. Too much. Mateo’s claws had dug too deeply into his chest. He glanced down now, finally, and—bastard almost took my heart.

This wasn’t good. “D-Dee…” He tried to call her again.

But Dee, with her slightly scorched hair, shot forward and slammed her fist into Leo’s face.

Then Simon slammed face first into the ground.

Chapter 10

He woke on a gurney. A mask covered half of his face and some crazy woman had her hand pressed hard to his heart. Simon’s hands jerked, snapping through the binds that held his wrists in place.

“Wow, easy!” That hand pressed harder. The woman stared at him, hazel eyes steady. “You go jumping up, you’ll ruin all my fine work.”

He heaved up anyway, and winced at the pull of—stitches? Yeah, she’d sewn up his chest.

“I didn’t do anything for the burns.” No, he didn’t want to look at those, but the woman, an EMT, trailed her fingers down his arm.

Pain pulsed through him and Simon sucked in a hard breath.

“Easy.” She glanced over her shoulder at the swarming cops and the firefighters with their blasting hoses. Then her eyes came back to him. “I stitched you up to stop the blood loss. I figured the burns would heal either before or on your next rising.”

Rising. A vampire term. So the lady with the curly brown hair knew what he was.

“I gave you blood,” she said, leaning in close and pointing to a bag that dangled near his head. “It took four bags to wake you up.”

“You mind giving him some room, Samuels?” Dee’s annoyed voice.

Simon almost smiled. Almost.

The EMT did.

“Jeez, I swear, if I didn’t know you were screwing that charmer, I’d think you were hitting on my vamp.”

Her vamp? Since when?

Serious progress.

Samuels eased back and Simon got a good look at his Born.

Soot marked the right side of her face. The ends of her hair had been scorched, so the cut was even more screwed than normal. Her lips were red. Her eyes big and dark. And when those eyes landed on him, horror filled them.

“Oh, hell, Simon, I didn’t know it was this bad.” She jumped into the back of the ambulance and hurried to his side. “What the hell were you thinking? Vamps can’t jump through fire. You know the skin of a vamp burns too fast.”

A weakness. One of only a few his kind possessed.

Her breath came out in a long hiss. Her fingers hovered over the red, raw flesh.

He caught her hand. “Don’t look at it.”

Her gaze rose. “Your face…”

Then he remembered the flash of agony along his cheek.

But her eyes only flickered for a moment, then held his. “Tough guy, aren’t you?”

Like this was the worst that had ever happened to him.

Not even close.

“You’ve got to stop trying to protect me.” Her fingers lifted and brushed back his hair. Simon knew his hair had to be singed like hers. That, too, would vanish with the next rising. “You know I’m stronger than I look,” she said.

A hell of a lot stronger. “You killed them all?” A guy could hope, because those ass**les were trouble.

Her hand fell away. “No, your sire’s still breathing. Kinda, anyway.”

He flinched. This was the last thing he wanted. “What? Why? And where the hell is he? Humans are here!”

“Easy.” Why was everyone telling him that?

She glanced back over her shoulder. “Tony has him. He’s taking him to a private holding cell.” Her eyes returned to his. “Can’t really have him blending with the general population in jail, now, can we?”

Not unless they wanted a slaughter.

Someone slammed the ambulance doors. The siren shrieked on, wailing over his head. “I can’t go to a hospital! You know what will happen once they get a good look at me.”

She crouched and locked her fingers with his as the ambulance took off. “We’re not going to the hospital.” Her eyes didn’t waver. Didn’t look at the skin on his face that he knew had to look like it had been touched by hell.

“Then where?”

A faint curve lifted her lips. Samuels watched them, but said nothing as she fiddled with the bags of blood, one of which still drained into Simon’s veins. “We’re goin’ to that private holding cell. Tony still needs his proof that I’m innocent, and before the sun rises, Leo will give him that proof.”

“You think Leo will turn on Grim?” He managed a hard shake of his head. Pain knifed through his body, white-hot agony snaked up his arms, but he was getting stronger. Every second, he was getting stronger. “Never gonna happen.”

“Aw, but you don’t know just how persuasive I can be.” A bigger smile, one that showed the tips of her fangs.

He swallowed.

“Grim,” she repeated the name, as if tasting it. “That the name of the freak after us?”

“Yeah.” One of his names, anyway. When you lived as long as Grim had, the names changed over the centuries. “He’s not an easy mark. You’ve never come across another like him.” He had to warn her. The fight wouldn’t go down like others had in her past.

“Huh.” A pause, too long, then, “If you haven’t been bullshitting me, and I’m really a Born—”

“Oh, Christ,” the whispered exclamation came from a suddenly wide-eyed Samuels.

“—then I can make that bastard Leo talk. One way or another.”

Yes, she could.

He fell back against the gurney. “It’s not bullshit.”

“No,” soft, thoughtful. “I don’t think it is.” Her fingers traced up the edge of his arm, carefully skirting the bright red blisters. “Where do you fit into all of this? Their side? Mine?”

His gaze darted to Samuels. He didn’t know her. Didn’t trust her.

He caught Dee’s fingers. Brought them to his lips. “I’m with you, babe.” That simple—he fit with her.

She hesitated. He knew she didn’t trust him yet. But she would. Soon. Even if he had to step through fire for her once more.

Simon closed his eyes, pushed back the pain, and wondered who Grim would send after them next.

“You burned for me,” she said, her voice barely reaching his sensitive ears.